Friday, February 26, 2010

Thank you to everyone who asked about directions for the box shown in this post. I will post directions, but I can’t say for sure when it will be! I’ll be in and out for the next few days, but I promise I will put a little tutorial together! So glad you liked it! And again, thanks for all your wonderful sympathy cards. Your kindness really touches our hearts—my DH is amazed!

My niece is expecting in a couple months, so as one of her shower gifts, I made a set of 20 thank you cards. This is the invitation her sister sent:

And I must apologize for these photos---for some reason, Sage Shadow and my camera just do not get along. The colors in the invite are actually Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Pumpkin Pie and Green Galore, although it looks more like Kiwi Kiss in my photo! Anyhoo, I took the colors along with the sailboat from Nursery Necessities to make these:

I stamped the boat in each of the three colors, cut the pieces apart, then reassembled them so that each boat was made of three colors. I then mounted them on a 1 3/4” circle and a scalloped Nestie. The sentiment is from Trendy Trees. Then, I made a box with a transparent lid:

And tied it up with a beautiful satin bow and a little matching tag:

She always comments on my cards, so I am hoping she will like these as well! Thanks for stopping by today! Tomorrow I’ll show you the card I made for the gift itself. Totally different!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Kristin is our throwdown hostess today and she has given us a nice springy palette of Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive and White! We’d love to have you play with these yummy colors too! Go check out the rules on the CTD blog, create your own work of art and post it on your blog or an online gallery, then link it back to the CTD. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Almost two years ago, I won some blog candy – lucky me! Inside were some loose 6x6 pieces of BG paper that fit this color combo perfectly (I just don’t know the name of the paper!). Since the papers are busy, I chose a fairly simple sentiment:

Although the sentiment doesn’t look like it, it is stamped in Old Olive and was also stamped with a retired BG stamp called Canvas, in Creamy Caramel. Those cute felt flowers from SU were the perfect embellishment! I already had my sewing machine out, so I did some stitching around the panels and smudged everything (like Pam does) to give it a warm, vintage look. I also used Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #57, which I just love:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Orange you tired of orange? LOL! In my latest SU demonstrator magazine, an article encouraged us to use scraps in our cards. I am the queen of scrap-throwaway. It drives me nuts to have little odd pieces of paper in my folders! I confess I do hold on to larger odd pieces, though! Anyway, this piece left over from cutting a circle would have normally gotten tossed, but I trimmed it up and turned in into a birthday card:

Another scrap made a faux ribbon, fastened with a jumbo brad. The flower, stamped in Taken with Teal and Pumpkin Pie, is from Best Wishes and More…a great set!!! Sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. And can you see the background lettering? That’s a cute new set called A to Z. Here’s a little closer peek (you can see the GLITTER too!):

I think orange is a happy color—since last week’s CAS challenge, I have been seeing it a lot! Hope it cheers you up!

Monday, February 22, 2010

I want to thank everyone for the condolences on the sudden passing of my mother-in-law. We are coping very well, although my husband is realizing that it is a much more difficult situation when he is the one needing the words of sympathy. We are praying the Lord will be glorified in all of this.

I did have a little time to stamp today---and there is only a little stamping on my card! The SCS CAS55 challenge today was to make over a card. Since I am trying to keep up with my own Christmas card-a-week challenge, and I did not get to stamp yesterday, I chose to redo this Christmas card into this Christmas card:

I changed the orientation of the card as well as the colors, but I used another one of my (hoarded) Brenda Walton K&Co Evergreen Icon Chipboards vintage postcard image and layered it on a piece of (hoarded) BG Figgy DP, which was then layered on a Barely Banana card. I used my Painty pen to draw a gold border to complement the gold border on the chipboard, then embossed a gold sentiment from CHF. The gold & white ribbon was simply tied through the hole in the chipboard and it was done. EASY!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I may be MIA for a few days, as my mother-in-law passed away suddenly this morning. She was a believer, so we know she is at peace, but it has been a bit of a shock to our family. We would appreciate your prayers.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Before I start my spiel, I just wanted to ask a little favor. Some of my readers ask me questions in the comment screen. While I would love to answer them (I love to talk stampin’!), if a reader is signed in as “anonymous”, there is no way I can answer their question. You can easily email me if you have a specific question, or sign in using your email address. I hate to leave people hanging with no answer!!

My sweet friend Robyn lent me her new Two-Step Bird Punch, and I made a very quick (read:LAZY) monochromatic card with the first punch-outs I did. Sometimes these cards are difficult to photograph, but the effect is very soft & subtle:

This also qualifies for the Limited Supply Challenge #260 at SCS today: to use ribbon and a trim punch, and for the Pals Paper Arts Challenge to KISS: Keep It Simple Sweetie. This card uses Barely Banana cs, with Vanilla Wide Grosgrain ribbon and the Scallop Trim Punch. Here’s the inside:

I saw this card on Corie’s blog and thought this would also make a good sympathy card.

My next lazy card is one I made with some scraps laying on my table; it’s a get-well card for my uncle who has been in the hospital for several days:

I literally threw this together—the only thing I had to do was trim the Chocolate Chip panel and round the edges; then I added the jumbo eyelet just for some interest. It uses Bordering Blue, Chocolate Chip & Confetti White cs, with some retired DP as well as Thoroughly Modern DP from the current catalog. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations.

I used a set from last year’s Spring Mini Catalog called And Many Mower:

I altered the sketch a tiny little bit, just so I could fit the sentiment on the front; the inside says “Happy Father’s Day”. I have NO idea to whom I am going to send this; out of one father, a FIL and a step-FIL, no one plays golf!! What was I thinking?? Anyone need a golf-related FD card? Oh well, I had fun playing with all the colors! A couple embossing folders added some texture and I colored the little golf ball with a Basic Black marker so I could use it as another embellishment. Thanks, everyone, for the inspirations and challenge!

Danielle really threw down a challenge with this color combo! I chose to use Sage Shadow, Really Rust and Bravo Burgundy for my colors. Normally I would have gone for a floral; I thought about using some digi images and going vintage; then I thought about funky….so here’s my take on fun & funky, CTD-style! We want you to play too! Check out all the details on the CTD blog so you make sure you follow the rules, then post your creation on your own blog or online gallery, using CTD80 as the keyword. Link it using the InLinkz feature so we can all see them!!! Here’s my take:

This card uses cute images from My Cute Stamps’ Little Forest Friends, and some fun DP from Cosmo Cricket’s Nutmeg line. The rest is pretty explanatory---it’s a simple card, just a few cuts & pop-ups for some interest!!!

Now be sure to check out what all the other designers did with this color combo---you’ll be glad you did:

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I rarely make boy cards, even though I have three boys in my immediate family!! Girl cards are just more fun! But this Extreme Guitar image was available with a $50 purchase during Sale-a-bration, so I thought it would be good for future use! So I inked it up for today’s card, grunge-style, and came up with this:

(The More Mustard panel here looks like Pumpkin Pie, but honestly, it’s not!!) I have to admit, this was a fun sketch, and I got to use lots of different images from different stamp sets! The guitar player was inked in More Mustard, then I dabbed the edge of my Chocolate Chip pad on top. Each piece was also overstamped with the Sanded background stamp. I can’t wait to try this sketch again with another image! Thanks for visiting today!

This week the JUGS girls have challenged us with a technique—the Split Negative. I have seen this but have never done it. I love the technique, (you can see it here on SCS) but I am not sold on my cards; perhaps another accent color or another image would have been better, but I pushed on and finished them despite my “non-love” for them!

It wasn’t until I finished my cards that I realized my ribbon was Brocade Blue and my accents were Ballet Blue. Grrr….oh well, as I said, it was too late to turn back! Each card is basically the same; the Labels One nestie is a little different on each one.

Tres Chic is the background stamp; Of The Earth hostess set is the bird image. I did not put any sentiments on these; I’ll probably use them as get-well or birthday cards. I am looking forward to trying this technique again with different results! Thanks for visiting today!

About Me

I am a SU demonstrator who loves all kinds of papercrafts as well as crosswords, knitting, cross stitch and sewing. My sweet hubby John patiently puts up with all of my crafting! I also have a beautiful daughter Dana as well as a sweet granddaughter who brings us joy and laughter! We are a Christian family and strive to glorify the Lord in all we do. You can reach me at leanne.pugliese@gmail.com